May 28, 2019: How US weapons ended up hitting hospitals in Yemen – Daniele Ganser: The illegal Saudsi war in Yemen in 2015 (in German) – Interruption of Earnings and Salaries… The Worst Economic Crisis in Yemen – What the Failure of the Amman Meetings Means for Yemen – Saudi air raid at Sanaa, killing 12 civilians – Mounting tensions in the Middle East, the US preparing for war – and more

Dieses Jemenkrieg-Mosaik ist in zwei Teile geteilt / This Yemen War Mosaic is divided in two parts.

UNICEF report on more deaths of #Yemen-i children in #Sanaa and #Taizdue to #Saudi Air Force bombing raids. Meanwhile Saudi personnel continue to train at RAF Valley and training fight using Ronaldsway (Isle of Mann Airport) were monitored last week. The RAF training arrangement should be cut its a DIRECT LINK to the killing.

SHE is the Scots aid worker who is following in her father's footsteps by risking her life working in some of the world's worst conflict areas.

Yemen-based Laura Phillips has revealed her diet of facing gunfire, sleep deprivation and constant phone calls with her family, to enable her to try to keep her calm in the line of fire while helping deal with the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

The 28-year-old World Food Programme (WFP) analyst has been based at a UN compound in the Yemeni capital of Sana'a since January, to help 12 million displaced and starving Yemenis every month, in projects supported by the Department for International Development (DFID).

Maintaining Britain's status quo in the region has contributed to the crisis in Yemen, while the outgoing prime minister has a grim record on refugees

During her tenure, which began in July 2016, the Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen spiralled into the world's worst humanitarian disaster, with tens of thousands of people thought to have been killed and millions facing starvation.

As the death toll increased, opposition to the UK's involvement in the war steadily grew as well, with repeated calls for the end of - and legal challenges to - the government's supply of weapons, equipment and expertise to the Saudi-led coalition.

May will not just be remembered for her failure to conduct an orderly Brexit, but for how she failed the common people at home and abroad

For a start, Theresa May played quite a destructive role when in came to the Middle East.

Since the campaign began four years ago, the British government has licensed £4.7 billion worth of arms to the Saudi government

Still, May's government barely wagged a finger of admonishment at MbS while continuing to provide him with vast quantities of arms and armaments and continuing to engage with him as if he did not just order the death of a defenceless journalist and lie through his teeth about it.

UK Foreign Secretary confirms German ban on arms exports will not include spares for British planes

The UK negotiated an exemption from a German ban on supplying equipment to Saudi Arabia for use in the war in Yemen, the foreign secretary confirmed on Thursday.

Tornado fighter bombers and Eurofighter Typhoons are both used by the Saudi-led coalition in air strikes in Yemen, which are aimed at combatting the Houthi rebel group. The aircraft are produced by consortiums of European companies, while Germany supplies spares for them.

“There will be a partial exemption for joint European programmes and their connected licences until the end of December 2019," said Hunt, in letter to the parliamentary Committee on Arms Export Controls (CEAC), according to the Guardian.

"I am pleased the German government has listened to our request to ensure the spares for the existing Typhoon and Tornado aircraft in Saudi Arabia may now continue to be licensed.”

Lloyd Russell-Moyle, a Labour MP and CEAC member, told the Guardian the revelations were deeply concerning.

“Not only is the government breaking UK export control law to keep Saudi jets in the sky bombing civilians in Yemen, it is lobbying other countries to do so," he said.

"How about getting the #UK to stop the Saudis having their low flying training flights at Ronaldsway?"

I was walking across a car park in Peel this morning when I spied Howard Quayle. "Mr Quayle," I asked. "How about getting the UK to stop the Saudis having their low flying training flights at Ronaldsway?"

He came out with the usual Mantra that the UK is responsible for our defence, to which I said that the UK are only interested in their own defence, not our's. He said that I was talking rubbish, turned his back on me and set off walking down the car park. This display of contempt by our Chief Minister was provocative, so I called after him

The West Fife MP said: “The humanitarian crisis in Yemen is one of the greatest tragedies of our times and by continuing with arms sales to Saudi Arabia, I believe the UK is playing a significantly negative role in the crisis and is now out of step with the rest of EU member states.

An ambassador for human rights won’t convince the world that Britain cares

The creation of this post is pure self-delusion, and doesn’t change the UK’s dire record in Yemen, India, Iraq …

The foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has created a new role of ambassador for human rights, which, according to a Foreign Office statement, “demonstrates the UK’s commitment to defending human rights globally”. Plainly it does nothing of the sort. What it demonstrates is the government’s desperation to repair the reputational damage incurred as its support for the worst human rights abusers of the Middle East comes under increasing scrutiny.

To say that Britain lacks the credibility to promote human rights to others would be to state the case very gently indeed. But absurd as the creation of this new ambassadorial role undoubtedly appears, we need to go beyond the obvious accusation of hypocrisy, and take a closer look at the precise role of human rights abuses in UK foreign relations. Those abuses are not aberrational – deviations from our national “values” – but an established component of British power in the world.

Photo: #Yemen is being debated right now in UK #Parliament. Well done to @alisonthewliss of @theSNP & Keith Vaz of @UKLabour for getting this on the agenda BUT ... the chamber is almost empty. The UK is heavily involved, whether via aid or arms. The least our MPs can do is to show up

In March, after a long legal battle between three Yemenis and the Federal Republic of Germany, a German court decided that Germany must ensure that support provided by a US military base to US’ drone campaign in Yemen is compliant with international law. This case illustrates many of the complexities highlighted by the Remote Warfare Programme in its report on the legal grey zones created by remote warfare released last year. To discuss the details of the case and its policy implications, the Remote Warfare Programme team are joined by Fiona Nelsen of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (one of the NGOs supporting the Yemenis who brought the case) and Jen Gibson of Reprieve.

cp12 Andere Länder / Other countries

(A K P)

New criticism over French arms shipment to Saudi Arabia

A Saudi Arabian cargo ship is set to arrive in the south of France on Tuesday to pick up munitions, according to a media report, rekindling criticism of weapons sales, which human rights groups say are being used in the devastating war in Yemen.

The shipment was revealed by investigative website Disclose, whose reporting on a similar shipment of French weapons earlier this month led to pressure that prompted Riyadh to renounce loading the weapons.

Disclose said the new shipment involved munitions for French Caesar cannons that would be loaded at the Mediterranean port of Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille.

"I learned about the imminent arrival of the Bahri Tabuk cargo ship this morning," Pierre Dharreville, a communist MP for the Fos-sur-Mer region, told journalists, calling for a "moratorium" on arms deliveries to Saudi Arabia.

My comment: Hypocrite: He also propagantes further arms sales to Saudis and UAE.

(B P)

Head Of Islamic Consultative Council: UAE Is The Enemy Of Islam

The head of the Islamic Consultative Council of Switzerland, Abdullah Nicholas, revealed new details about the role played by the UAE in inciting against Islam and Muslims in Europe.

In an interview on Al-Jazeera two days ago, Nicolas said there were Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, inciting against Muslims and giving information to anti-Muslim political parties.

He said that there is a battle in some Arab countries related to political Islam, which has been classified as “terrorism” as happened in the UAE and Egypt for example.

My remark: This refers to the UAE’s enmity against Mulsim Brotherhood, labeled as “political Islam” here.

(B P)

Dear @washingtonpost, The #UAE spyware on the office of His Highness the Prime Minister Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad is expected to be part of your coverage #Bahrain

André Gauthier, a 65 year old Canadian citizen from Quebec, has indeed been fighting for a long time. He had been one of the first shareholders of UAE gold brokerage firm, Gold AE, to suspect financial foul play by the management, and had eventually been tasked with investigating what emerged as one of the biggest scams in UAE history. Now, André was despondently messaging his son from a Muscat prison, facing extradition to the UAE, wrongfully charged for the very fraud he had been instrumental in exposing.

Under the patronage and attendance of HE Dr. Sultan Ahmad Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of State, Chairman of the National Media Council of the United Arab Emirates, the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of the UAE was opened as a facility and meeting place for Foreign Correspondents from the world’s media based in or visiting the UAE.

Situated in the new Rotana Complex in Abu Dhabi the club provides excellent modern facilities for meetings, press conferences, networking and relaxed conversation between UAE government ministers and official and the world’s press.

Remark: Promoted as 'a centralise media hub and “one stop” contact point for all press and media enquires, press conference and events', it hides a dark side for local journalists. In the Emirates, in fact, there is No independent media and dissidents are persecuted.

The #UAE have become masters of online surveillance of journalists, who often fall victim to its 2012 cyber-crime law.

Protesters on the streets of Sudan have repeatedly warned against intervention by regional allies Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt. Analysts say support pledged by the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt for Khartoum's military rulers echoes Sisi's rise to power in the wake of the Egyptian revolution, when he served as a defence minister.

Deputy head of Sudan's military council meets Saudi crown prince, says Sudan will continue to send troops to Yemen.

A top Sudanese general has vowed to back regional ally Saudi Arabia against "all threats and attacks" from its rival Iran during talks held with the kingdom’s powerful crown prince, Sudan’s ruling military council said.

The official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported on Friday that General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy head of Sudan’s ruling Transitional Military Council, met Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah a day earlier.

"Sudan is standing with the kingdom against all threats and attacks from Iran and Houthi militias," Dagalo, who goes by the nickname Hemeti, told the crown prince during their meeting, the council said in a statement.

The former Tunisian president, “Monsef Al-Marzouki,” warned of the dangers of external interventions to sabotage the democratic experiment in his country and the Arab countries, calling especially the UAE as a “virus”. Explaining that “there is a difference between extending a helping hand and trying to sabotage Tunisia.”

cp12a Katar-Krise / Qatar crisis

(* B P)

EXPORTING THE GULF CRISIS

But this time the crisis is different, for reasons that have eluded policymakers, stymied mediation, and created dangerous ripple effects throughout the region. Like past disagreements, this one is built with layers of personality, ambition, and insecurity. What’s new is the moralistic narrative each side has sought to write, depicting themselves as righteous leaders of a new kind of region.

Understanding this story is key to understanding the true fallout of the crisis, which isn’t on the Arabian peninsula. War has not broken out among Gulf nations, but the feuding sides have taken their fight to more distant battlefields — mostly throughout the greater Middle East and on the Horn of Africa.

The story goes like this: On one side, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt say they are pushing the region on the only viable path toward stability and growth. They favor governments like their own, ones that take a firm hand in suppressing dissent, particularly Islamists, such as the Muslim Brotherhood. They place their faith in an idea that economic growth will confer its own sort of legitimacy and that their aid can help weather difficult transitions in the meantime.

One doesn’t need to believe the premise of this story to understand how it is shaping reality.

Second, the narrative explains in part why these states are exporting their conflict: They hope to outmaneuver their rival in the broader region. The dispute colors and exacerbates ongoing conflicts close-by and farther afield, most acutely today in Libya and Sudan.

Both sides saw themselves as sitting on the right side of history — with a unique chance to shape it. The traditional heavyweights in the Middle East — Egypt, Syria, and Iraq — were consumed in turmoil and the United States had signalled a pivot away from the region.

In far more places, competing sides of the Gulf rift are laying the seeds of potential future conflict with aggressive new outreach. Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Ethiopia, Chad, and South Sudan are among the long list of countries where both sides of the dispute are courting the government, the opposition, local leaders, or some combination — invariably against each other.

Political competition is one thing, but the existential narratives emerging from the Gulf crisis impose yes-or-no answers in places with a long history of finding compromise solutions. It eliminates the possibility of negotiation and political flexibility.

As is now apparent in Tripoli and Khartoum, the Gulf crisis is not only, or even primarily, playing out in the Arabian Peninsula. And even if Washington may believe it can afford to live with the Gulf split, the region cannot. What happens there may yet redound badly for all – by Elizabeth Dickinson

Qatar has been invited by Saudi Arabia to attend two emergency Arab summits being convened in the Saudi city of Mecca on May 30, Qatar’s foreign ministry said on Sunday, after previously saying it had not been.

Last week Qatar said it had not been invited to the two summits Saudi is planning in Islam’s holiest site to discuss the implications of drone strikes on oil installations in the kingdom and attacks on four vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers, off the UAE coast earlier this month.

cp13a Waffenhandel / Arms trade

Siehe / Look at cp9

(* A K P)

U.S. State Department clears $80 million sale of Blackjack surveillance system to UAE

The U.S. Department of State has approved a possible $80 million Foreign Military Sale (FMS) to the United Arab Emirates of a further batch of RQ-21A Blackjack unmanned aerial surveillance system, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said in a 24 May statement.

The prospective FMS package includes twenty RQ-21A Blackjack Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAVs). Also included are forty Global Positioning Systems (GPS) with Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) Type II (MPE-S); air vehicle support equipment including eight Ground Control Stations (GCS), four launchers, and four retrievers; spare and repair parts; publications; training; and technical support services.

The U.S. State Department approved the sale of 331 shoulder-fired anti-tank missiles with container to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to strengthen security in the region and modernise the country’s military, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.

“This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by improving the security of an important partner that has been, and continues to be, a force for political stability and economic progress in the Middle East.” the DSCA said in a statement released late on Friday.

The Government of the United Arab Emirates has requested to buy three hundred thirty-one Javelin Guided Missiles with container. Also included are System Integration & Checkout (SICO) service; Field Service Representative; U.S. Government and contractor technical, engineering and logistics support services’ tools and test equipment; support equipment; publications and technical documentation; spare and repair parts; and other related elements of logistics and program support.

Playing by your own rules Why Europe should have long stopped selling arms to the Near and Middle East

It’s a complex state of affairs – and European involvement encompasses, first and foremost, the export of military hardware.

In this highly militarised region, each and every government pursues an expansion of military capabilities

So the question should not be why Germany suddenly stopped exports, but rather why it allowed them for so long. And how the United Kingdom and France are getting away with raising their finger and moralising at Germany for being unreliable, when really, there should be an outcry that EU countries are shamelessly supplying this war-torn region with weapons. What is the point of an EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports when it’s so flagrantly ignored?

It’s also ignored that the carefree arms-exporters are flouting the EU guidelines they helped to shape. As such, any calls to ‘adapt the guidelines’ are tantamount to asking for export restrictions to be abolished.

Government will continue to supply aircraft to be used in war, says Jeremy Hunt

The UK government has negotiated a loophole in a German arms export ban to Saudi Arabia that will ensure UK-supplied planes will continue to be used in the war in Yemen, the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has confirmed.

The news is contained in two unpublished letters from cabinet ministers to the parliamentary Committee on Arms Export Controls (CEAC).

In his letter, Hunt explained that the German government extended its freeze for six months on 28 March but “there will be a partial exemption for joint European programmes and their connected licences until the end of December 2019. I am pleased the German government has listened to our request to ensure the spares for the existing Typhoon and Tornado aircraft in Saudi Arabia may now continue to be licensed.”

He added that on “other collaborations and bilateral programmes the government is seeking further clarifications from the Germans”.

In a collective demonstration of solidarity between European civilians and the suffering Yemeni civilians, the Saudi ship Bahri Yanbu was turned away from ports in France and Italy without loading its deadly cargo of weapons.

Italian civilian groups as well banded together to prevent the docks of Genoa from being the transit point in the chain of events leading to yet further civilian deaths in Yemen. “What happened today in Genoa, what happened in Le Havre and Santander, showed the importance of international working-class solidarity, especially in stopping wars. And it showed the strength of the dock workers. We are winning because the arms will not be loaded here as was planned,” said activist Giacomo Marchetti, a member of Unione Sindacale di Base.

cp13b Mercenaries / Söldner

Sudan’s transitional military council said in a statement on Friday that Sudanese forces in Yemen will continue to fight the Iran-backed Huthi militias.

The statement came after a short visit to Jeddah on Thursday by the Vice-President of the Transitional Military Council, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo (Hemetti), during which he met the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.

The statement noted that Hemetti thanked King Salman and Crown Prince on behalf of the President of the Military Council for the support provided by the Kingdom to Sudan.

He also reiterated that Sudan stands with the Kingdom against "all threats and attacks by Iran and the Houthi militias" and condemned the attack on Saudi oil tankers in the Gulf waters and the recent drone-strikes on Saudi oil facilities.

"We declare full readiness to defend the land of the two Holy Mosques. The Sudanese forces are there and remain in Saudi Arabia and Yemen; we will fight for this goal and we will remain until all the objectives are achieved," the statement said.

cp13c Wirtschaft / Economy

Siehe / Look at cp1

(B E P)

A slight improvement in the price of the riyal after the intervention of the central bank of 120 million Saudi riyals

The Yemeni rial has recorded a slight improvement in foreign exchange in the past hours, after a major drop in the parallel market, amid accusations between the Houthi authorities (unrecognized) in Sana'a and the legitimate government in the interim capital of Aden.

Bankers told Al-Masdar online that a slight improvement in the price of the Yemeni riyal, recorded the end of the trading of exchange companies, and the black market, on Sunday, where the price of the dollar in the sales process 542 and purchase of 527 to the dollar, while the price of Saudi Riyal reached 143 sales and 140 purchases in the capital Sana'a under the Houthi militias control.

The exchange rate in the parallel market in Aden and government-controlled areas reached 540 in the sale and 530 purchases, while the Saudi exchange rate was 141for sale and 140 for purchase.

Yemen's currency has fallen again against the US dollar as the government is continuing to withdraw tens of millions of dollars from a Saudi deposit put in the Central Bank to stabilise the rial. Today, the rial is trading at 550 per US dollar, down from 500 two weeks ago.

On May 16, the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes on a populated neighborhood in Sanaa, killing six civilians — including four children — according to the Houthi-run Health Ministry.

On May 17, Reuters reported that the UN-sponsored meeting in Jordan ended with no agreement. The Houthis said they do not trust the government-run Central Bank and refuse a deal to share the bank’s revenues.

A source with the Houthi delegation at the meeting who asked to remain anonymous told Al-Monitor May 17 that the delegation was surprised by the deliberate absence of Hafez Muaiad, the governor of the Central Bank based in Aden.

According to the source, the Saudi-backed government appointed Mohammed al-Omrani as head of the government delegation instead of Muaiad. “[Omrani] is an intelligence official with no economic background,” the source added. Omrani is the director of the Technical Office for Consultations of the Hadi government and head of the National Information Center.

The source also said the Houthi delegation at the Amman talks was headed by the Central Bank in Sanaa Gov. Mohammed al-Sayani, noting that the warring sides refused to meet face to face at the talks and UN mediators had to shuttle between them.

The internationally recognized government, which is based in Aden, moved the Central Bank from Sanaa to Aden in August 2016

cp14 Terrorismus / Terrorism

(A T)

Film: Yemen | Al Qaeda vows to get revenge against ISIS after killing four of its members in Al Bayda

Al Qaeda has vowed to take revenge against ISIS in Yemen, noting that ISIS has loyalty as well as many agreements with a number of security services, following a statement published through Aamaq agency by ISIS's spokesperson, that an ISIS element managed to infiltrate Al Qaeda and locate their meeting in kaifa directorate in Al Bayda province, in central Yemen, killing four of them and injuring others.

Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) released a video criticizing the Islamic State in Yemen on May 21. The video features an interview with a former Islamic State militant who was imprisoned by the Islamic State before escaping to AQAP-held territory. AQAP has clashed with the Islamic State in al Bayda governorate in central Yemen in recent months.[2]

cp15 Propaganda

(A P)

Saudi Arabia Urges Int’l Community to Take Firm Stand Against Houthis

Saudi Arabia has called on the international community to shoulder its responsibilities by taking a firm stand against the Iran-backed terrorist Houthi militias after targeting vital populated areas in the Kingdom with ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles.

My comment: LOL. You could take this serious if there were no Saudi air raids in Yemen:

(A P)

Int’l Conference on Makkah Declaration Kicks Off

Under the patronage of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Muslim World League (MWL) is hosting today an international conference on the values of moderation and the declaration of "Makkah Document". The conference, titled “Moderation and Indications,” will be attended by dignitaries, scholars, senior officials and leading thinkers from the Muslim world. MWL Secretary-General Mohammed al-Issa said that the conference will discuss several topics, including “Moderation in Islamic History and Jurisprudence Heritage” and “Neutral Speeches and the Contemporary Age” under the theme of “Moderation Between Authenticity and Modernity".

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz stressed on Monday that Saudi Arabia has condemned all forms of violence, extremism and terrorism. His remarks were made at the opening of a religious conference in the holy city of Makkah and delivered on his behalf by Governor of the Makkah region Prince Khaled al-Faisal bin Abdulaziz.

Saudi Arabia has taken it upon itself to spread peace and coexistence and has set up global centers and intellectual platforms to that end, said King Salman.

Intelligence reports of missiles and drones said it assessed threat looming over Yemen and neighboring countries, according to the Saudi-led Coalition to Support Legitimacy in Yemen, which added that Houthi terrorist organizations are linked to revolutionary regimes and terrorist groups in Africa and the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the Coalition's Joint Forces held the Iranian regime fully responsible for prolonging the war in Yemen by providing Houthis with ballistic capabilities and drones to carry out terrorist acts and target civilians and vital facilities inside Yemen and Saudi cities.

Coalition spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki stressed that Saudi Arabia’s security is a red line and those involved in terrorist acts will not escape punishment. He noted that all those responsible for the aircraft, speedboats, and firing of rockets will be held accountable, even if they hide among women, children, and civilians.

My comment: A lot to say here. The Saudis are beating the war drums, spreading their propaganda again and again. – Saudi security had been endangered by the Saudi crown prince’s running havoc policy, in gthe case of Yemen and others. – The Houthis target military targets, not „residential aereas“.

Iran is still supplying Yemen’s Houthi rebels with ballistic missiles and unmanned aircraft despite warnings of retaliation by the Arab Coalition, it said on Tuesday.

“We have documented information on the supply of rockets by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to Yemen’s Houthi militias,” said Arab Coalition spokesman Col Turki Al Malki during a press conference in Riyadh.

The coalition “will not allow the rebels to continue targeting residential areas with rockets,” he said, adding that it will increase its activities to combat the threats posed by the Houthis.

“The international community must do more to bolster the rebel's threat,” he said.

The Iran-backed Houthi militia is trying to target Saudi Arabian cities with ballistic missiles, according to the Arab coalition fighting to support the legitimate government in Yemen. Speaking at a weekly press conference in Riyadh, spokesperson Col. Turki Al-Maliki said the Houthis continue to threaten residential areas with ballistic missiles and threaten maritime navigation in Bab Al-Mandab. Al-Maliki said the international community must shoulder its responsibilities against the threat of Houthi missiles.

As the war against the self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq appears to come to a close, the greatest risk of regional conflict comes from Iran. The intervention of Iran’s forces and proxies in Syria, Yemen, and Iraq have emerged as imminent threats to Israel and Saudi Arabia that could escalate into the next major war in the Middle East. Iran may not be deterred by unilateral interventions by Israel or Saudi Arabia, so the U.S. must play a role in averting a catastrophic conflict.

The U.S. need not engage in regime change or preemptive war to address the threat from Iran. As the primary means of the regime in Tehran is the use of proxies and the export of insurgency, the U.S. could adapt strategies for Al-Qaeda and ISIS to counter Iran’s war-making ability.

IRAN IN YEMEN

Iran has played a leading role in the escalation and protraction of the civil war in Yemen. Houthi militants backed by Iran launch attacks on military and civilian targets in Saudi Arabia while Iran uses Yemen for the flow of weapons and fighters to the other parts of the Middle East. Iranian intervention has been followed by a controversial and inconclusive military response from Saudi Arabia, which sees the Houthis as Iran’s southern flank in a double-envelopment of the Kingdom.

U.S. STRATEGY AND IRAN

Among the strategies developed for responding to asymmetric threats is what David Kilcullen proposed as disaggregation wherein the threat is recognized as emanating from a central ideological actor that builds a “web of dependency” that will “feed on local grievances, integrate them into broader ideologies, and link disparate conflicts through globalized communications, finances, and technology.” While Iran is not Al-Qaeda or ISIS, there are parallels between how they operate.

The U.S. should signal to Iran that it will respond to any countermoves made by Iranian forces and proxies against the U.S. forces or U.S. allies. A contingency plan and a show of force in the region should be the basis of a pattern to establish and expand deterrence towards the regime.

A strategy of disaggregation coupled with deterrence is best option for the U.S.

My comment: Another propaganda article on Iran, one of the quite blunt ones. Ridiculousness starts in the headline: it laments on Iran’s „war machine“. Compare the military spending of Iran (US$ 13.2 billion) to the US (US$ 648.8 billion). Compare the number of US war vessels close to the Iranian coast to the number of Iranian war vessels close to the US coast. – And again and again: Iran’s role in Yemen is a minor one.

(A P)

Saudi Arabia, Yemen Sign Development, Reconstruction Agreement

The Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY) signed a joint cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government on the development and reconstruction of Yemen.

The agreement is part of the cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Yemen and the reinforcement of ties between the fraternal countries to provide and implement development and reconstruction projects and services in Yemen.

It is time to stop militia’s violations against relief actions, says Minister

Minister of Local Administration, Chairman of High Relief Committee—Abbduraqeeb Fatah said ” It is time to put an end of the putschist Houthi militia’s repeated violations against relief and humanitarian actions”.

US media and members of Congress, amidst escalating tensions between the US and Iran, found it appropriate to focus their energies on Saudi Arabia, instead.

This grossly misleading headline left out the fact that 1) Yemeni government is working with the Arab Coalition to put down Iran-backed rebellion of a radicalized Houthi faction, which has been stealing humanitarian aid and terrorizing Yemeni and Saudi civilians 2) No one is aiming at civilians – the war effort is against a highly dangerous movement, with sophisticated weaponry from Iran and advanced training from Hizbullah, which has also received assistance from Iran experts on the ground and 3) Sadly, collateral damage happens in any war,

The Iran-backed attacks on Saudi oil tankers and Aramco sites in KSA attracted worldwide attention because they raised the question of a possible confrontation with Iran in the Gulf.

Despite the US record in avoiding confrontations with Iranian proxies whether in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen or anywhere else, an organized media campaign of former Obama administration officials issued dire warnings about prospects for an all-out war.

Democratic lawmakers openly sided with Iran after a recent intelligence briefing, even defending IRGC from the classification as a terrorist organization by the administration

But if these influencers, public officials, and supposedly responsible journalists are so concerned about human rights and security for civilians, where is the outrage about the plight of Saudi civilians suffering from multiple attempted missile attacks by Houthis since the recent Gulf crisis broke out?

Nevertheless, such attacks are illegal, deeply immoral, and, no matter how well prepared Saudi Arabia is, are without a question a threat to human lives.

Keep a look-out this week for a Saudi-made video previewing the "emergency" Arab summit in Mecca due to be held on Thursday. If you see it on social media, chances are that the person posting it is being paid to do so.

Several Twitter users with Middle East connections have reported receiving messages from a Dubai-based marketing and advertising firm called InHype. It invites them to take part in "a paid collaboration with a famous Saudi TV channel".

According to the message, all they have to do in order to earn money is post "the summit's ready-made video" on Twitter and/or Facebook on May 29 (the day before the summit). Here's one example of the message received by Twitter user Mariem Masmoudi:

Nearly four years since the Houthi rebels were pushed out, life in Aden is returning to normal.

While much work is still needed in terms of rebuilding Aden, the security situation has improved greatly.

On December 7, 2015 President Hadi appointed two Southern Resistance commanders — who had succeeded in defeating the Houthi-Saleh forces in a very short period of time — to lead Aden out of its darkness and defeat this new insurgency. General Aiderous Al-Zubaidi was appointed governor of Aden, and General Shallal Ali Shaya was appointed chief of security. The two worked quickly with the UAE to build the Aden security forces which included a counter-terrorism unit trained and equipped with the latest weapons.

With the continued support from the Arab Coalition led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Aden Security made significant gains against AQAP/ISY throughout Aden.

The comparison between the current security situation in Aden and the situation that Aden experienced more than two years ago clearly indicates the tremendous efforts made by the Aden Security Department.

All of this would not have been possible without the enormous sacrifices made by Aden security forces and the generous support by the Arab Coalition, specifically the United Arab Emirates.

My comment: This evidently is an article in favor of southern separatists’ UAE-backed militia. Already the first photo, militiamen with southern flag, shows it. – Nevertheless, the article tries to negate the deep gap between separatists and the Hadi government. And, the security at Aden still is very ambiguous.

Comment by Judith Brown: From the perspective of a secessionist. In fact, Aden has been completely destabilised as different powers struggle against each other - Hadi and the UAE, Al Qaeda and Hadi forces, UAE and Islah, the struggles go on and make Aden ungovernable. So many assassinations, so much poverty, so little paid employment, and the things that made Aden special, it's feisty women, it's tolerance, are now things of the past as religious intolerance is becoming the name of the game - even the deputy of the Southern Transitional Council has close association with AQAP.

For more than 30 years, the cause of the people of South Arabia/South Yemen has been marginalized by central Yemeni authorities, with Southerners prevented from shaping the decisions that directly affect them. For 25 years, Yemeni authorities have worked to erode South Yemen’s resources and infrastructure, and to weaken public services in Southern governorates. Today, this exacerbates the suffering and devastation amid the crisis, as 3.5 million South Yemenis remain in need of humanitarian support.

Donate now. Your support will enable us to continue helping Southerners to decide their future once and for all.

The assistant to the Iranian army’s chief, Brigadier General Hassan Seifi, said that they have been able to “export their culture” to armed groups in Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza, and Afghanistan who can “overcome the largest army in the world.”

Amid rising tensions between Iran and the US, President Donald Trump tweeted over the weekend: “If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran. Never threaten the United States again!”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded with a short history lesson, saying that Trump “hopes to achieve what Alexander, Genghis & other aggressors failed to do. Iranians have stood tall for millennia while aggressors all gone.”

Zarif’s analogy calls to mind a famous one made by Saddam Hussein, in a speech he delivered on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

My comment: Saudi propaganda on growing US-Iran tensions; the Saudis hope the US will start a war. And:

(A P)

The mullahs’ conundrum: Martyrdom or capitulation?

After US President Donald Trump’s decision to end waivers on Iranian oil sales on May 2, the Islamic Republic’s regime finds itself in more dire straits than ever before.

The Islamic Republic’s plan to hunker down and wait for hurricane Trump to pass is falling apart. While the regime has been suffering from the resumption of sanctions increasing pressure on Iran’s currency and financial system over the past several months, this latest blow to oil exports will cripple the economy.

Iran’s advocates in the west argue that sanctioning the regime would only further entrench it domestically. They contend that sanctions hurt the average Iranian, and would therefore cause people to rally around the leadership and set aside other grievances.

Iran couldn’t have spread across Yemen and the region if it weren’t for the policies of the US Saudi Arabia. The Houthis were enabled by the Emirati and Saudi conspiracy against the Yemeni youth’s revolution, which is no longer a secret, and its efforts to dismantle the Yemeni army. The Emiratis and Saudis were planning on Hussein Al-Houthi invading Sanaa and the outbreak of a civil war between him and the Islah party, bringing Ali Abdullah Saleh in on its ruins, and for the south to separate, along with its ports and islands, and join the UAE. Iran tricked them both and eliminated Saleh at a time when the Islah party was fighting on two fronts, the Houthi front in the front and the Emirati militias in the back. Meanwhile, Iran spread in the country using its missiles, drones, and soldiers fighting on its behalf based on their doctrine and convictions.

My comment: This report looks like an assembly of various conspiracy theoris.

(A P)

Saving Yemen

For those who might require additional examples of the sometimes seemingly random and inconsistent nature of foreign policy, it would be effective to offer Yemen for consideration.

At that seminal moment [in 2014], the march to democracy was derailed by the Iranian destabilizers, sending its Houthi stand-ins down from the mountains into the streets of the capital, Sana’a, in an armed coup that resulted in an estimated 12,000 deaths while bringing some 24 million Yemeni citizens into a humanitarian crisis and sending its newly-formed government sent into exile.

Clearly too much to overcome absent outside assistance, with the troops of President Hadi – head of the internationally-recognized Yemeni government – on the ropes, the Saudis created a coalition to provide air support for the ground forces. A brutal rebuttal: most certainly. And the difference between life and death for a free Yemen: absolutely.

For its part, the United States provided logistical support, none of which violated the rising populist mantra excoriating any thought of sending “boots on the ground” to the theater of conflict.

Yemen’s leaders implore America’s lawmakers to apply the same resolve and persistence with which it thwarted the ISIS caliphate; or the abhorrence of visions like the photograph depicting a sea of school children literally forming a human shield in order to protect terrorist leader Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi – by Felice Friedson, president and CEO of The Media Line, the American news agency covering the Middle East.

President Trump is rightly issuing an emergency declaration in order to authorize $8 billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Those arms will mitigate the risk to civilian lives in Yemen and deter Iran in a moment of escalating crisis.

Trump's action is necessary.

First off, Iran is clearly posing a severe threat to both the Saudis and the UAE. In recent weeks we have seen Iranian attacks on oil tankers near UAE waters, and Iranian orchestrated drone attacks on Saudi Arabia.

Trump's action is also important in consolidating U.S. allies in our favor.

The U.S. gains influence by having our allies' backs — influence with opportunities: to push for more aggressive political reform in areas such as women's rights, and toward meaningful resolutions to conflicts such as that in Yemen – by Tom Rogan

The coordination committee of the Program of Communication with Yemeni Scholars met in Makkah on Thursday with the program’s supervisor Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mutairi, in the presence of Advisor to the Yemeni President Sheikh Mohammed Al-Ameri.

Al-Mutairi hailed the efforts of scholars and preachers to combat the extremist ideas propagated by the Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen, and stressed that the intellectual battle is no less important than the military one.

Al-Ameri, too, praised the program and expressed his thanks to the Saudi government for its support of scholars and preachers, and its support for the Yemeni people and the country’s legitimate government.

The scholars denounced the Houthis, saying that the militia’s crimes affect the faith and culture of the Yemeni people and threaten their future as well as their present.

Yemeni experts believe that the escalation of the Houthi drone attacks indicate that the country's years-long conflict started in expansion far beyond the borders to include other neighboring countries in the region.

The professor of political sociology at the University of Sanaa Abdul Baqi Shamsan told Xinhua that the timing of the frequent Houthi drone attacks aimed at delivering obvious messages from Iran to its rivals in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia.

"It's obvious that Iran started to use its loyal proxies in the region, including the Houthi militias, for the purpose of hurting Saudi Arabia indirectly through simply manufactured drones," said Abdul Baqi.

Brigadier Mohammed Jawas, strategic military expert based in the southern port city of Aden, revealed to Xinhua the major factors that helped Houthis to develop their military equipment despite the presence of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

"The Saudi-led coalition succeeded in destroying the Houthi military capabilities but failed in tightening supervision and securing the borders of Yemen to prevent the operations of smuggling weapons and drones to the rebels from their foreign allies," said Jawas.

Minister of Information Muamer Al-Iryani blamed Iran-allied Houthi militia for trying to get around the implementation of Stockholm Agreement. He said, “Houthi militia killed the hope that Stockholm Agreement produced for the Yemeni peoples who are desperately looking forward to see an end of the war the militia triggered”.

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a defence and security think-tank in London with close ties to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), held an event on 16 May about the war in Yemen.

The event consisted of two panels.

The first panel featured Mummar al-Eryani, the Information Minister of the internationally recognised Yemeni government, and Alistair Burt, a Member of Parliament and one of the most knowledgeable British officials on the Middle East who was until March the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at FCO and Minister for International Development.

The Huthis Started the War

The Extremism and Brutality of the Huthis

The Huthis have been given a nearly free pass in the Western media, Burt noted, and thus it was welcome that officials of the legitimate government were revealing the depredations of the Iran-supported militiamen. The British and other Western governments have long known about this state of affairs, finding the delivery of humanitarian aid in Huthi-held areas difficult, Burt confirmed, with severe delays to delivery and the theft of aid by the Huthis.

Possible Solutions

The ideal solution is to neutralise Yemen, said Burt. Given the foothold Iran now has, Tehran is able to bargain for the country not to be used as a launching pad against them by the Gulf states.

Colonel Al-Malki further said that Iranian-backed terrorist Al-Houthi militia deliberately targets civilian goals and facilities, as well as citizens and expatriates of all nationalities in a systematic manner without any considerations that would result in endangering their lives. He warned in the strongest terms the Iranian-backed terrorist Al-Houthi militia that its continuation in targeting civilian goals and facilities as well as civilians along with that their use of tactics of terrorist attack would have strong and decisive methods of deterrence.

Yemeni people have held a mass funeral for victims of last week’s Saudi airstrikes on the capital Sana'a, venting their anger at the bloody bombing campaign led by the Riyadh regime against the impoverished nation.

During Friday's funeral procession, the mourners laid to rest the bodies of six civilians, including four children, who were killed in the Saudi attack on Sana'a's Rukas district on May 16.

Yemeni journalist Ahmed Sharaf al-Selmy, whose four children Seham, Abdulrahman, Khalid and Wase'em, were among the victims of the Saudi air raid, denounced the brutal war on his country (with film)

Nearly a dozen people have been killed when Saudi-led military aircraft carried out a string of airstrikes against an area in Yemen's southwestern province of Ta'izz.

Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that the warplanes struck a petroleum derivatives plant in the Mawiyah district of the province on Friday afternoon, leaving nine people dead and several others injured.

On 24 May 2019, twelve civilians were reported killed when a strike hit a fuel station in Mawiyah District, east of Taizz City in Taizz Governorate. The dead include seven children. Two other injured people are being treated in a local hospital.

Comment: It's one thing using strong language and another taking action. There are good people in the UN who speak out with courage although the world's media does not give these statements the emphasis they deserve. But the UN itself is under the control of hegemonic power and unable to do what it morally, and almost certainly legally, right - stop the sale of ALL weapons that might be used in this horrific war.

Most of the casualties in #Saudi#UAE strike on petrol station in Maweyah #Taiz were children 12 were killed Inc 7 children Name and age Hamzah 8yrs Gaazi 9yrs Akram 10yrs Joseph 12yrs Omar 13yrs Ayaam 14yrs Mohammed 14yrs .. 3 still unidentified because of severly burned body parts

Incident Assessment Team announces results of investigation into the bombing of the oil station and Beit al-Faqih market

The joint incident assessment team in Yemen announced on Wednesday evening the results of the investigation into a number of incidents referred to it by the Arab coalition Forces, which were carried out at various times last year and ongoing.

On the bombing of a house in the capital Sana'a, advisor Mansour al-Mansour, spokesperson for the Yemen Accident assessment team, told a press conference in Riyadh that the military operation is undergoing thorough review and operational scrutiny and the results will be announced soon, stressing that the joint incident assessment team Committed to transparency and neutrality.

Boat bombing incident on Badi island

came after verifying the presence of a gathering of al-Houthi militia and arms smuggling boats on the island

Market bombing incident in Beit al-Faqih district

the allegation of the coalition bombing of a vegetable market in the district of Beit El Faqih in Hodeidah is unfounded, stressing that the shelling targeted Houthi elements and was 12 kilometres from the place

Mosque shelling in Sana'a governorate

there was a weapons depot in the area and there were no mosques in the vicinity of the shelling.

Shelling of a house in Al-Baydha governorate

the coalition forces were targeting a military communications system at a distance from the house, which was not subject to any damage caused by the shelling

Bombing of the oil station in the capital Sana'a

With the availability of intelligence checks, the al-Houthi armed militia took over (a gas station), which fell under the legal protection of civilian objects, based on the principles and provisions of international humanitarian law and its customary rules for direct and regular use of presence of vehicles and mechanisms of Al-Houthi armed militia for the purpose of actively contributing to military action and supporting the war effort.

Accordingly, at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday (11 Ramadan 1439), the Allied Coalition Forces carried out an aerial mission on a target of "a gas station" in the south-west of Sana'a City, using one bomb that hit the target, in order to reduce the capacity and capability of the al-Houthi armed militia fuelling their vehicles and mechanisms.

My comment: More „results“ of Saudi coalition sham self-„investigations“ by its so-called „joint incident assessment team“. For the first four cases, no date is reported, this ereally is contrary to „transparency“, and I could not verify these cases. In case 5, Sanaa, May 26, 2018, the raids hit an oil company building / gas station.

cp17 Kriegsereignisse / Theater of War

(A K pS)

Yemeni minister calls for UN intervention in Al Dhalea province

Mohammed Asker says thousands of lives are at risk as Houthi shelling intensifies

Yemen’s Human Rights Minister has urged the United Nations to intensify its humanitarian intervention in the southern province of Al Dhalea after a series of intensive attacks on populated areas by Houthi rebels.

Thousands of civilians from the areas of Hajer and Mureis in Qatabah district and Al Azarik have been displaced over the last two months and are running low on food and other supplies.

Minister Mohammed Asker told The National on Tuesday that international organisations must intervene in the province to save thousands of lives that urgently need assistance.

The Houthis are hoping to gain another victory in the provinces surrounding the capital Sanaa as they continue to target civilian homes in the Habeel Al Souk village, in the Hajer district, using mortar and Katyusha rockets.

“We struggled to stay home, so we fled, especially after the Houthi shelling damaged our house,” said Umm Ahmed, a mother of eight, as she fled to safety.

The province has no displacement camps so civilians leaving their homes have been staying at schools or in abandoned houses, said Fuad Gubari, an independent journalist covering the fight in the province.

Al Dhalea, situated between Aden and Sanaa, is symbolically important to government troops because it was the first region they liberated from the Houthis after the coup in 2014.

My comment: This obviously is loaden with propaganda. If there is intense fighting, both sides are shelling. If the Hadi government side had „liberated“ this area, they did it by assault, attack, and shelling.

(A K pS)

Film: Fierce clashes between government forces and Houthis in Al-Bayda governorate

Fierce clashes erupted between government forces and Al Houthi in Al Hmeiqan area of Al Zaher district in Al Bayda province, in Yemen, the several hours battle with light and heavy weapons resulted in a number of deaths and injuries between the two sides

Chairman of Yemen's National Mine Action Program, Brig. Gen. Amin al-Aqaili at a meeting on anti-personnel mines in Geneva today said that the mines which the Houthi militias plant are among the most dangerous mines especially that they do not distinguish between civilians or soldiers. More than 14,000 anti-personnel mines and 62,000 anti-machinery mines have been removed, he said.

Saudi Arabia’s air defence forces intercepted a drone armed with explosives which had been launched by Yemen’s Houthis and aimed at an airport in the south of the kingdom, state news agency SPA said on Sunday.

The aircraft had been targeting the airport in Jizan, close to the border with Yemen, SPA said, citing a statement from a Saudi-led coalition that has been battling the Houthis in Yemen. SPA posted pictures of the drone wreckage on its Twitter feed.

SAM Organization said that the conflicting parties in Hajar district in Addalie governorate central Yemen are deliberately attacking civilian targets causing the death and injury of civilians, mainly women and displaced thousands to other areas that lack food aids.

SAM confirmed it has documented the killing of two aged women in Alazariq district by Houthi sniper and the raid and looting of civilian’s houses.

The spokesman for the armed forces said that most of the operations carried out deep inside the enemy's territory are documented by the Military Media of the Army and the Popular Committees.

Brigadier Yahya Sare'e said in a statement to Almasirah TV that the aggression has to be reckoned that the coming operations will be more painful, pointing out that the Army and the Popular Committees have stopped the operations for a certain period as a message of peace.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement on Thursday launched a drone attack on a Patriot missile battery in the airport of the Saudi city of Najran near the Yemeni border, the group’s Al-Masirah TV said on Thursday.

The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis said the drone was intercepted and destroyed by the kingdom’s air defenses.

Official Spokesman for the coalition forces "coalition to support the legitimacy in Yemen" Colonel Turki Al-Malki said that at 01:46 o’clock this afternoon, the Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces (RSADF) successfully managed to intercept a drone carrying explosives launched by Al-Houthi terrorist militia in an attempt to target Najran Regional Airport, being used daily by thousands of Saudi and expatriates without any regard for international humanitarian law and its customary rules, which gives special protection to civilian objects.

The attack is the fourth in a 300-target blitz promised by Yemen’s Houthis until Saudi Arabia ceases its war on Yemen.

The airport lies 840 kilometers southwest of Riyadh near the Saudi-Yemen border and has been targeted twice before in the past three days. The first attack targeted an arms depot in the military wing of the airport causing a fire and the second targeted Saudi military aircraft shelters. The airport has repeatedly targeted by Yemeni forces over the past four years.

Saudi Arabia rarely acknowledges the success of Houthi attacks, and keeping with that tradition, Saudi Coalition Col. Turki al-Malki, said that the Royal Saudi Air Defense Force was able to shoot down the drone before it could reach its target

The Houthis say their attacks Saudi and UAE targets are in retaliation for attacks Yemeni on civilians. Like most of Yemen`s people, the Houthis hopes their drones will force the Saudi-led Coalition to stop their war against their country, where a humanitarian crisis remains the worst in the world.

Saudi Arabia has confessed the recent Houthi attacks have created a new balance of power, but show little sign of ending their war on Yemen.

Yemen's Joint Operations Command Center has released footage verifying a retaliatory attack on the Abu Dhabi International Airport carried out last year, which had been denied by officials of the United Arab Emirates.

The video shows a Sammad-3 (Invincible-3) unmanned aerial vehicle flying at low altitude before it fires a missile, setting two trucks parked at the airport ablaze.

The attack took place on July 26, 2018 when Yemeni army soldiers, backed by allied fighters from Popular Committees, launched an airstrike against the airport using a domestically-built long-endurance Sammad-3 (Invincible-3) unmanned aerial vehicle (with film)

cp18 Sonstiges / Other

(* C)

Sufi mystics’ reverence for coffee led to Yemen’s world monopoly on bean production—for 300 years

You might think a certain global megabrand has a chokehold on all things coffee, but way back in the 15th century, a tiny southern Arabian country launched our love for the caffeinated concoction. Yemen had a world monopoly on coffee production for nearly 300 years.

How did the Yemenis come to revere caffeine? In various legends, a sheikh was traveling through Ethiopia when he saw birds behaving strangely, and observed that they were eating berries off a plant.

While both stories are likely apocryphal, this much remains true: By the early 1400s, Sufi mystics in Yemen sipped coffee as a stimulant to keep them awake and alert during their epic chanting prayers to God. And coffee drinking soon spread from monasteries to newly created coffee houses.

The coffee plant was cultivated in the Yemen highlands and called by the Arabic name of qahwa, which morphed into the English variations of coffee and café (images)

In the 1980s, photographer, painter and poet Myriam Tangi took three separate trips to Yemen in the hopes of photographing the last Jews living in the country.

According to legend, Jewish history in Yemen dates back to the time of King Solomon and the request of the Queen of Sheba to see Hebrew craftsmen settle in her country.

As non-Muslims living in an Arabic country, the Jews of Yemen, one of the most ancient Jewish communities in the diaspora, were considered dhimmi, which literally means, “protected class.” As dhimmi, Jews had certain rights but also had to contend with a number of restrictions, including limits on their freedom of movement – For example, Jews were only permitted to travel within Yemen and could not venture beyond the borders of the country.

Yemenite Jews were not allowed to own land and were under the protection of the sheikh of the village or the city where they lived. This meant that the sheikh was responsible for their safety and was obligated by law to protect them. The relationship between the community and the sheikh was often warm and sometimes even friendly.

In the 1980s, we set out on a journey to photograph the last few remaining Yemenite Jewish communities that were scattered throughout the country. There were at the time, approximately 300 to 400 Jews left in Yemen and only a few foreigners had travelled through this remote country at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

We made our way to different villages across the country including Beit Sinan in the Arhab district, about an hour north of Sana’a, the capital (photos)

Kader is a survivor of so-called honor-based violence (HBV). I co-wrote “Hear My Cry” with her, published by Hachette Poland in 2015.

HBV is used predominantly to control the behavior of women and girls to protect cultural and religious beliefs, values and social norms in the name of “honor.” People who commit HBV are usually family members or friends. The “honor code” is set at the discretion of male relatives or the wider cultural community in which a family lives. Women who do not abide by the “rules” are punished for bringing shame on the family.

cp19a USA bereitet Krieg gegen Iran vor / The US is preparing war against Iran

Siehe / Look at cp9

(* A E P)

China Stopped Buying Oil From Iran Due to US Sanctions – Reports

China has stopped buying oil from Iran after Washington announced a decision not to extend exemptions from its sanctions for certain countries, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources in the Iranian oil industry.

According to Rahim Zare, who is a member of the economic commission of the Iranian parliament, China, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Turkey, which were previously granted waivers, purchased from Iran a total of 1.6 million barrels of oil daily in March, but have ceased purchases since.

In any tense military confrontation, diplomats start looking for an “off ramp” that could de-escalate tensions. But in the current standoff between the United States and Iran, it’s hard to find any such exit route.

The U.S.-Iran faceoff is one of those odd situations where both players appear eager to set off sparks, although neither seems to want a raging fire. They seem comfortable in a halfway zone of conflict, where nations use force in deniable ways across different domains, hoping they don’t set off an explosion.

The problem is that nobody in Washington, Europe or the Middle East has a convincing answer to the obvious question: What’s next? Each side says it fears an attack by the other, but hard-liners in both capitals seem eerily ready for an exchange of blows.

Here’s how a senior Trump administration official put it in a talk with reporters Thursday: “Because we are applying levels of pressure that don’t have any historic precedent, I think we can expect Iran to increase its threats to increase its malign behavior.”

Washington and Tehran both view the confrontation through rosy lenses, tinged by ideology.

The Trump administration sees an Iran straining to cope with punitive sanctions; White House officials are telling colleagues that in six months, the Iranian regime will have to make a deal — or face chaos in the streets. Rather than reducing sanctions, Trump officials are talking about adding even more, affecting petrochemicals, for example. Intelligence analysts here and abroad are skeptical about the Trump policy assumption that Iran will cave.

The Iranians, for their part, appear to have concluded that confrontation is the only way to deal with what they see as an untrustworthy, bellicose United States. Tehran decided a few weeks ago that waiting out the Trump administration wasn’t working. Sanctions were squeezing too hard, and Trump looked as though he might be reelected – by David Ignatius

My comment: No, the basic assumption is quite wrong: Iran hardly is „oddly eager for war“, as it’s evidently clear Iran will loose any war, with horrific consequences for this country. – Iran just is unwilling to fully capitulate and to became an US vassal, at least as far as foreign policy is concerned. There is quite a difference whether the US agglomerate naval forces at a close look to the Iranian coast or the Iranians do this, and tzhe US squeezes Iran with sanctions while the wother way round Iran cannot do this. – The state which is „to increase its threats to increase its malign behavior“ obviously ist he US, not Iran.

(A P)

John Bolton to visit UAE amid ongoing turmoil with Iran

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton is scheduled to travel to the United Arab Emirates this week in order to discuss the current situation in the Middle East region

More than a thousand American troops are headed to the region, but questions about the threat persist.

But satellite images provided exclusively to The Daily Beast by the company Planet Labs show that a component of the administration’s description of Iran’s aggressive behavior—an apparent positioning of Iranian missiles onto boats—may not be as clear in commercial imagery as anonymous administration officials claimed it to be in statements to other publications.

The images do show an unusual activity spike at the base where officials told The New York Times they saw Iranian troops loading missiles onto tiny boats known as dhows. A source familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast that U.S. intelligence picked up signs that looked like Iran was developing a capability to quietly launch cruise missiles and “attack oil infrastructure on land” from the boats. Outside experts, however, have doubts about how strong the evidence of missile activity really is.

Team Trump first exited Obama-Biden-Kerry’s stillborn nuclear deal, which gave the West a deadened, one-sided, unenforceable promise to end nuclear research – which Iran did not do – in exchange for planeloads of cash. That was a year ago.

In a confirmation of Iranian bad faith, Islamic leaders went full throttle testing long-range missiles, which could one day carry nuclear warheads. In response to Iran’s regional belligerence and overt support of anti-Western terrorism, Trump began ratcheting up sanctions.

The Trump administration has said clearly – if Iran attacks Americans or our allies in the region, expect proportionate military reappraisals. No location is any longer out of bounds. If Iran persists in this pernicious and destabilizing behavior, expect a persistent U.S. and allied response.

Finally, there is a longer-term message being sent. It is two-fold. It is this: America will no longer allow any region of the world – or any of our allies – to be terrorized without a decisive response. We will deter, seeking peace through strength, as Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan and two Bushes did in the same region. But we will respond – with force – if needed. Second, and more simply, the Iranian people deserve better – by Robert Charles, a former assistant secretary of state for President George W. Bush, former naval intelligence officer and litigator. He served in the Reagan and Bush 41 White Houses.

"President Trump is escalating tensions, is provoking yet another war in the Middle East where we find ourselves already engaged in war in so many countries -- in Iraq, in Syria, in Yemen, not too far from there in Libya, and in Afghanistan," O'Rourke said in an interview with Margaret Brennan for "Face the Nation," which will air on Sunday (with film)

Tucker: We are moving toward confrontation with Iran. That should worry everybody, but it should especially concern the president’s supporters. If President Trump decides to go to war with Iran, it will destroy his presidency, just as the Iraq War destroyed the presidency of his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush.

The U.S. will send hundreds of additional troops and a dozen fighter jets to the Middle East in the coming weeks to counter what the Pentagon said is an escalating campaign by Iran to plan attacks against the U.S. and its interests in the region. And for the first time, Pentagon officials on Friday publicly blamed Iran and its proxies for recent tanker bombings near United Arab Emirates and a rocket attack in Iraq.

President Donald Trump told reporters Friday that the 1,500 troops would have a “mostly protective” role as part of a build-up that began this month in response to what the U.S said was a threat from Iran.

Along with the newly announced Pentagon deployment of 1,500 troops to the Middle East in order to counter "an escalating campaign by Iran" the US is sending a dozen fighter jets to provide aerial support, the AP reports.

The AP tallied the fresh deployments to join the already in the region USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and four B-52 bombers as follows

This suggests the troops could be placed at US or allied bases along the Persian Gulf, in places like the UAE, Qatar, or even possibly Saudi Arabia — something the Saudis have recently said they'd be open to in support of anti-Iran operations.

The newly announced 1,500 troop deployment appears peanuts, however, compared to the already about 70,000 US military personnel currently present in the region. The AP report summarizes further

President Trump himself seemed to all but admit the latest build-up is mostly symbolic as a fear-inducing tactic in passing remarks to reporters on his way to Japan Friday: “We want to have protection in the Middle East. We’re going to be sending a relatively small number of troops, mostly protective,” Trump said. “Some very talented people are going to the Middle East right now. And we’ll see what happens,” he added.

US Deploying Additional Fighter Squadron, ISR Aircraft to the Middle East

The Pentagon is sending more intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft and another fighter squadron to the Middle East as part of a deployment of 1,500 personnel to “improve our force protection and safeguard US forces” from Iranian threats, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan announced May 24. The ISR and fighter aircraft, which were not identified, will provide “additional deterrence and depth to our aviation response options,” Shanahan said in a statement. Additionally, the military will deploy a Patriot missile defense battalion and an engineer element “to provide force protection improvements.” The fighter squadron will be in addition to USAF F-35s and F-15s already in the region. “The additional deployment to the US Central Command area of responsibility is a prudent defensive measure and intended to reduce the possibility of future hostilities,” Shanahan said. President Donald Trump, in brief remarks outside the White House, said the additional forces will be “very good in the Middle East,” though “I certainly don’t think [Iran] wants a fight with us.

The Pentagon says "the leadership of Iran at the highest level" ordered a spate of disruptive attacks over the past two weeks including attacks on an Aramco Saudi oil pipeline and pumping facilities, the recent sabotage of four tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, as well as a May 19 lone rocket attack on the US embassy in Baghdad's protected Green Zone.

However, the Pentagon statements issued by Adm. Michael Gilday, director of the Joint Staff, on Friday offered absolutely nothing in terms of hard proof. That still didn't stop the war rhetoric from continuing: "Even more troubling: We have had multiple credible reports that Iranian proxy groups intend to attack U.S. personnel in the Middle East," Gilday said.

The military analysis site, Task & Purpose in a follow-up pressed the Pentagon to cite some level of evidence that Iran did indeed order attacks "at the highest levels." The response was issued as follows:

"The Iranians said they were going to close the Strait of Hormuz," Gilday said. "The Iranians struck those tankers. The Iranians struck the pipeline facility in Saudi Arabia through their proxies in Yemen. We know they're tied directly to those proxies. We know they're tied directly to the proxies in Iraq that launched the rocket."

However, troop build-up in the region to any degree could prove explosive and extremely dangerous for the prospect of a broader conflagration, considering both the IRGC's recent terror designation, as well as Iran ally Syria coming under new chemical weapons scrutiny over fresh claims it used poison gas in a battle near Idlib on Sunday.

Trump Is Making the Same Mistakes in the Middle East the US Always Makes

In its escalating confrontation with Iran, the US is making the same mistake it has made again and again since the fall of the Shah 40 years ago: it is ignoring the danger of plugging into what is in large part a religious conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslims.

I have spent much of my career as a correspondent in the Middle East, since the Iranian revolution in 1979, reporting crises and wars in which the US and its allies fatally underestimated the religious motivation of their adversaries. This has meant they have come out the loser, or simply failed to win, in conflicts in which the balance of forces appeared to them to be very much in their favour.

It has happened at least four times.

Now the same process is under way yet again, and likely to fail for the same reasons as before: the US, along with its local allies, will be fighting not only Iran but whole Shia communities in different countries, mostly in the northern tier of the Middle East between Afghanistan and the Mediterranean.

Donald Trump looks to sanctions to squeeze Iran while national security adviser John Bolton and secretary of state Mike Pompeo promote war as a desirable option. But all three denounce Hezbollah in Lebanon or the Popular Mobilisation Units in Iraq as Iranian proxies, though they are primarily the military and political arm of the indigenous Shia, which are a plurality in Lebanon, a majority in Iraq and a controlling minority in Syria. The Iranians may be able to strongly influence these groups, but they are not Iranian puppets which would wither and disappear once Iranian backing is removed.

Allegiance to nation states in the Middle East is generally weaker than loyalty to communities defined by religion

This is not what Trump’s allies in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Israel want Washington to believe; for them, the Shia are all Iranian stooges.

There is nothing new in this paranoid reaction by Sunni rulers to actions by distinct Shia communities (in this case the Houthis) attributing everything without exception to the guiding hand of Iran.

This type of absurd conspiracy theory used not to get much of hearing in Washington, but Trump and his acolytes are on record on as saying that nearly all acts of “terrorism” can be traced to Iran. This conviction risks sparking a war between the US and Iran because there are plenty of angry Shia in the Middle East who might well attack some US facility on their own accord.

It might also lead to somebody in one of those states eager for a US-Iran armed conflict – Saudi Arabia, UAE and Israel come to mind – that staging a provocative incident that could be blamed on Iran might be in their interests.

But what would such a war achieve?

If war does come it will be hard fought. Shia communities throughout the region will feel under threat. As for the US, the first day is usually the best for whoever starts a war in the Middle East and after that their plans unravel as they become entangled in a spider’s web of dangers they failed to foresee – by Patrick Cockburn

The 2020 candidates are resisting the latest brush with war, but they’re not going far enough.

Ever since the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, Americans have held an understandably negative view of the Iranian regime, a public perception that makes it easy for Trump, Bolton, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to describe it as the root of virtually all of the Middle East’s ills. But, in truth, Iran today is no more aggressive and malign than its key regional competitor, and America’s ally, Saudi Arabia.

A second supposed example of Iran’s uniquely aggressive behavior is its intervention in Syria. But here, again, Tehran’s behavior is no more aggressive than Riyadh’s.

The key to understanding Iran’s involvement in Syria is the Iraq-Iran War

But the problem with suggesting that Iran is uniquely supportive of terrorism is that, in recent decades, Sunni jihadist groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda have killed far more American civilians. And those groups have received the bulk of their state support not from Iran but from Sunni-led regimes—particularly Saudi Arabia and other monarchies in the Gulf.

By calling out Iranian aggression while ruling out war, Democrats may believe they’re splitting the difference. But if they can’t describe Iran as a normal regional power jockeying with equally sharp-elbowed foes, they can’t effectively challenge the sanctions the Trump administration keeps piling on the Islamic Republic. Over time, permanent sanctions can become a formula for military conflict.

This is a key, if underappreciated, lesson of Iraq.

The impossibility of normalization—because of the bipartisan exaggeration of the threat Saddam posed—put the U.S. and Iraq on a path to war.

That’s what the Trump administration is doing now with Iran. It hasn’t just reimposed the economic sanctions that Obama lifted. It has toughened them and imposed conditions—which include Tehran’s withdrawal from every major country in which it is competing with Riyadh—that Iran can never meet.

By trying to ensure that Iran cannot export a single barrel of oil, and relying on Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries to meet global demand, the Trump administration is goading Tehran into interfering with their exports. And last month the Trump administration designated Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist organization, even after U.S. military officials warned that doing so increased the prospect of Iranian retaliation.

That’s the crucial context behind last week’s war scare: The Trump administration was responding to a provocation it helped create.

Unless Democrats challenge the notion that Iran is uniquely malevolent, they won’t be able to call for a normalization of relations with the United States. And unless Democrats call for a normalization of relations, a hot war will remain an ever-present danger – by Peter Beinart

In a war with Iran, the United States would have to contend with Tehran-backed proxies spread across the region, armed with mines, missiles and drones.

As the United States and Iran trade threats and risk a potential collision, the Trump administration is struggling to counter Tehran’s network of proxies across the Middle East. The sprawling network is armed not only with missiles and mines, but also with political influence.

Earlier this month, U.S. officials said intelligence indicated Tehran had given a green light to its proxies in the region to go after U.S. targets. That prompted the White House to issue stern warnings to Iran, beef up U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, and order a partial evacuation of American diplomatic missions in Iraq.

For Tehran, proxies from the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Oman provide an extended defense far beyond its borders, making adversaries think twice before launching an attack on Iran.

Since the 1980s, Tehran has gambled successfully that its rivals will not directly target its territory, and instead hit back only at the local forces it arms and trains.

Last week, Saudi Arabia blamed Iran and its Houthi allies in Yemen for a drone attack on an oil pipeline pumping station. But Riyadh responded by targeting Houthi forces in Yemen, not by carrying out strikes on Iran itself.

Iran’s playbook starts with arming mostly Shiite groups that evolve “into political movements that acquire political legitimacy, seats in national parliaments and cabinets, and, over time, major roles as national decision makers,” according to a recent report by the Soufan Group, a global security firm that tracks developments in the Middle East.

My comment: This is a (typical) warmongering article from the US, painting Iran as a major threat and as head of a proxy network. And it wants to suggest that the latest attacks in the Middle East are part of an Iranian playbook, which just are propaganda claims. The Iraien leadership might be abhorrent, but they are not interested in suicide.

And another piece of bad propaganda here. Look at he language of war, labeling Iran as „enemy“. The author does not want diplomacy he smears it – but just war:

(A P)

How is this not colluding with America’s enemies?

Imagine, for a moment, what the political reaction would be if a leading Republican senator met with an antagonistic foreign power, say Russia, in the midst of high-tension standoff between President Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin?

Actually, my imaginary set-up doesn’t really do the Feinstein dinner justice. Iran isn’t merely a rival of the United States — like, say, Russia — but a violent and active enemy. Like Russia, Iran has long been hacking into US institutions. But the Islamic regime, according to the past two administrations, is also responsible for the death of hundreds of American service members in Iraq.

If your allies and your own military and intelligence experts are telling you you’re wrong, they may have a point.

The Trump administration’s warning about an imminent attack by Iran in the Middle East appears to be unfounded and its escalation of pressure on Tehran part of a strategy to win concessions from the Islamic Republic.

Amid escalating tensions between the United States and Iran, when asked by a reporter on May 16 whether war was imminent, U.S. President Donald J. Trump responded: “I hope not.” In light of that sentiment, the U.S. escalation against Iran does not make strategic sense. If you wish to only modify an opponent’s behavior you do not push it into a corner.

If the U.S. goal was to “never be held hostage to the Iranian regime’s nuclear blackmail,” as U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo noted Trump has promised, then surely the best way forward would have been for the United States to stay in the Iran nuclear agreement (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA) and seek to strengthen its provisions.

If Iran’s ballistic missile tests are a concern, then surely another agreement, an addendum to the JCPOA and not more sanctions, would have been the right way to go about affecting that behavior.

Even with both Iran and the United States declaring that they are not interested in going to war, an inadvertent conflagration is not out of the question. A war with Iran would have devastating long-term consequences for the region and U.S. interests within it.

Whether or not the United States stumbles into war with Iran, the region is rife with conflict and U.S. leadership on resolving those conflicts is absent. The longer the war in Yemen continues, the stronger AQAP will get—if for nothing else than because more young Yemenis will flock to its ranks as they see a U.S. hand in bombing them rather than in trying to save their children from starvation. The case for strong diplomatic and moral U.S. leadership has never been stronger – By Nabeel Khoury

Mattis cautions against war with Iran in first public remarks since leaving the Pentagon

In what appear to be his first public remarks on U.S. national security since his resignation as Secretary of Defense, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis offered a word of caution to President Donald Trump amid escalating tensions with Iran on Tuesday.

"The United States should buy time to keep peace and stability and allow diplomats to work diplomacy on how to keep peace for one more hour, one more day, one more week, a month or a year," Mattis said during remarks in the United Arab Emirates.

"Iran's behavior must change," Mattis added, "[but] the military must work to buy time for diplomats to work their magic."

Russian Ambassador to Iran Levan Dzhagaryan says allegations that Iran has recently been purposely ratcheting up tensions in the Middle East are "baseless," as some regional countries are following up on the American narrative that the Islamic Republic is actively seeking confrontation.

"We are deeply concerned with the current situation in the Persian Gulf right now and we are now in contact with the both sides... as well as other countries in the region to calm down the tensions," Dzhagaryan told Press TV in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.

He said the US military buildup in the region was "quite unnecessary," arguing Iran "doesn't pose any threat for regional countries."

“The incidents that recently took place in the United Arab Emirates and Iraq after the US entered the region are not unpremeditated and they aimed at Iranophobia and milking the Arab [countries of the region],” Major General Abdolrahim Moussavi said on Wednesday.

Film: Trump’s war whisperer John Bolton | The Weekly with Wendy Mesley

U.S. President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton has been pushing regime change in Iran for over a decade. He also pressed hard for the 2003 Iraq invasion. Is he now pressuring Trump towards another war in the Middle East? The Weekly investigates how things got so heated and what it means for the world.

The White House deliberately is stoking controversy with Iran as a pretext for unnecessary military action, according to one right-leaning American magazine.

“President Donald Trump’s national-security team has been leaking ‘intelligence’ about Iranian threats for a week now in an attempt to justify escalating tensions, including moving American air-attack assets to the Persian Gulf,” Gareth Porter wrote in The American Conservative.

The intel they've provided is thin, the origins murky and suspect---haven't we heard this story before?

President Donald Trump’s national security team has been leaking “intelligence” about Iranian threats for a week now in an attempt to justify escalating tensions, including moving American air attack assets to the Persian Gulf. But a closer look suggests that National Security Advisor John Bolton and other senior officials are trying to pull off an intelligence deception comparable to the fraudulent pretense for war in Iraq.

There’s also credible evidence that Israel could be playing a key role in this subterfuge.

This deception has served to defend not only a U.S. military buildup in the region, but an expansion of the possible contingencies that could be used to justify military confrontation. In Bolton’s White House statement on May 5, he said the deployment of assets to the Gulf would “send a clear and unmistakable message to the Iranian regime that any attack on United States interests or on those of our allies will be met with unrelenting force.”

But public claims by the White House about Iran don’t reflect “intelligence” in any technical sense of the word. No one has cited a single piece of hard evidence that justifies these claims of threats, let alone any that are “new,” as press leaks have suggested. All of them appear to be deliberate and gross distortions of actual facts. Thus do they parallel the infamous aluminum tubes of the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, which were presented as proof of an incipient Iraqi nuclear weapons program, despite the fact that technical analysis had shown that they couldn’t have been used for that purpose.

The Washington Post reported on May 15 that Pentagon and intelligence officials had cited three “Iranian actions” that had supposedly “triggered alarms”

None of those three claims describes actual evidence of a threatening Iranian “action”; all merely refer to an official U.S. “concern” about a possible Iranian threat.

The notion of missile launchers on small Iranian boats threatening American ships has been the subject of extensive leaks to the media. But a closer examination of that story shows that it’s an entirely artificial construct.

Ravid’s Israeli sources acknowledged that it wasn’t hard intelligence or even an intelligence assessment based on evidence. Instead, as one Israeli official acknowledged, Mossad “drew several scenarios for what Iran might be planning.” Ravid’s sources ultimately admitted that Israel’s Mossad doesn’t really know “what the Iranians are trying to do.”

This is the obvious explanation for why U.S. officials were so unwilling to reveal the provenance of what has loosely been called “intelligence.” It also tallies with one Pentagon official’s revelation to Newsweek that the satellite imagery cited as evidence of missiles in fishing boats had been “provided to U.S. officials by Israel….”

These deceptions are part of a dangerous game being run by Bolton in which Israel is apparently playing a crucial role. That should prompt some serious questioning as to Bolton’s claims and the role of the alleged secret U.S.-Israeli understandings.

There are already signs of resistance within the Pentagon in response to this move towards war with Iran, as reported by Newsweek late last week. “Be on the lookout for Iraq 2.0 justifications,” said one military official. “Think about the intel indicators prior to the Iraq invasion. Compare. Then get really uneasy.” – by Gareth Porter

cp19b Weitere Spannungen im Mittleren Osten / More tensions in the Middle East

Iran has proposed signing a non-aggression pact to its neighbors, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said. At the same time, the country is ready to defend itself from any attack, be it “an economic war or a military one.”

“Tehran has offered to sign a non-aggression pact with its neighbors in the Gulf,” Zarif said on Sunday during a joint press conference in Baghdad with his Iraqi counterpart Mohamed al-Hakim.

Iran's top diplomat did not name an exact list of the countries eyed in the document, yet stressed that Tehran seeks to “build balanced relations” with all Gulf states. At the same time, Zarif cautioned that the country is ready to defend itself if attacked, by any means necessary.

As tension in the region reaches an unprecedented level, Iran comes up with a rather bizarre proposal. On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said his country was proposing ‘a non-aggression pact’ with the Gulf states.

Iran has come under the threat of a US attack. So Tehran has turned to its neighbours to help bail it out.

He probably expected the Gulf states to jump with joy and embrace his ‘generous proposal’. Or he might have thought that we are so naive that we would have faith in Tehran’s ‘good intentions’ following decades of direct and indirect aggression against the Gulf states and their interests.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Tehran will defend itself against any military or economic aggression and calls on European states to do more to preserve a nuclear deal his country signed with them.

Speaking in a news conference in Baghdad with his Iraqi counterpart Mohamed Ali al-Hakim on Sunday, Zarif said his country wanted to build balanced relations with its Gulf Arab neighbours and that it had proposed signing a non-aggression pact with them.

Iraq is willing to act as an intermediary between its neighbour and the United States, al-Hakim said, adding that Baghdad does not believe an "economic blockade" is fruitful - a reference to US sanctions.

New Satellite Photos Reveal "Iran's Land Bridge" Linking Tehran To The Mediterranean

the Washington neocons' worst nightmare has come true. A literal new land bridge establishing an international highway that runs all the way from Tehran to Beirut is now under construction, just released satellite images reveal (images)

A senior commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says the United States' presence in the Middle East is at its "weakest in history" of Washington's military presence in this region, amid spiraling tensions between the two countries.

"The Americans have been present in the region since 1833 and they are currently at the weakest state throughout the history of their presence in West Asia, and have the minimum number of warships in the Persian Gulf," Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, the second-in-command of the IRGC, said in an interview with Fars news agency on Sunday.

Iran Rejects Claims of Involvement in any ’Direct, Indirect’ Talks with US

Iran has categorically rejected claims by a Kuwaiti official about the beginning of negotiations between the Islamic Republic and the United States with the goal of reducing tensions between the two sides.

"There are no direct or indirect talks between Iran and the US," Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Moussavi said on Sunday.

The Iranian spokesperson's comments came after Kuwaiti media outlets quoted the country's Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah as saying on Saturday that negotiations between Iran and the United States have started.

President Hassan Rouhani says the Islamic Republic will not surrender and stop defending its independence even if it is bombed and its men are killed, wounded, and captured.

The Iranian president made the remarks in a Thursday address to a group of war veterans in Tehran, amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington, and growing concerns about a possible military confrontation between the two sides.

"Iran won't give up [pursuing] the goal of maintaining its independence and dignity even if it is bombarded and its men are martyred, wounded, and captured," Rouhani said.

A senior Iranian commander has downplayed Washington’s stepped-up belligerent rhetoric against the Islamic Republic, saying US warships deployed to the Persian Gulf get permission for movements there from Iranian forces, who are in full control of the strategic waters.

Moscow believes that it is dangerous to create new dividing lines in the Middle East, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said on Thursday, commenting on the possible creation of the so-called Arab NATO that could counter Iran.

"As for the creation of different coalitions, ad hoc coalitions or alliances, we believe that it would be extremely important, given the current situation, not to create additional dividing lines in the region, in the Near and the Middle East in particular, especially if these lines would speculate on confessional differences. This is a dangerous path. We should look for something that unites us in this region," Vershinin told reporters on the sidelines of the International Likhachov Scientific Conference in the Russian city of St. Petersburg.

Pardo reflected on the current tensions between Iran, Israel and the US. Asked by Morell if Iran sought “the elimination of the State of Israel,” he replied: “Look, that’s what they are stating, okay? I think that they know that that’s an illusion. Maybe it’s good for their own propaganda, and it might serve us if we want to do a few things, but it’s – come on. When they are facing reality, they will never be able to do it. It doesn’t matter which kind of weapon they’re going to hold.”